Last year we set out our aspiration to match the best countries in the world for organ donation and transplantation, and if we are going to achieve this we will need to see a revolution in attitudes in society towards donation.

The increase in donors reflects increasing support in hospitals to refer potential donors to us and more families being approached, but there has been little change in our attitude to donation over the last few years. It's still not something we would all be proud to do.

My heart goes out to all the families that find themselves in the position where they have to make a decision about organ donation.

In particular, the decision to donate on behalf of a young child is really tough. But organ donation saves lives and donor families talk with pride of the difficult but ultimately rewarding decision to donate their loved one's organs. Knowing that they have helped save another family from a terrible experience, often helps them deal with their grief.

There are around 10,000 people in the UK in need of a transplant and some of these are young children. In order to save more lives, we need more people to join the organ donor register.

A Midlands doctor is calling for a radical approach to increase the number of black and Asian people donating their organs.

Organ donating forms Credit: ITV News Central

According to Dr Adnan Sharif, a kidney consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, the UK should consider a scheme where priority for surgery is given to people already on the organ donor register.

He says there has been a 'huge failure' to boost organ donation rates among Asian and other ethnic minority groups.

An expert warned there has been a "huge failure" to boost organ donation rates among black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups. Credit: PA Wire

There has been a "huge failure" to boost organ donation rates among black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups, an expert has said.

The UK should now consider a scheme where priority for surgery is given to people already on the organ donor register, according to Dr Adnan Sharif, a kidney consultant at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Figures show that ethnic minorities make up 10.8% of the UK population yet represent 24% of the organ waiting list.

Just 4.2% of organ donors are from minority ethnic backgrounds and there are only around 118,000 people registered from these backgrounds to give an organ after their death, Dr Sharif wrote online in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).